What GAD thread has had the most impact or meaning for you?

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Which threads stayed with you over time? Or created a whole new perspective you never had before? For me there are a number of candidates, so feel welcome to respond with a shortlist, not just one, if this applies to you. I am going to think about this over the next few days to decide on my own answer.

I doubt I could find the exact thread, but the first time I saw people discussing alexithymia was the first big revelation for me. I had never heard the word before, despite having seen many psychologists and counsellors throughout my adult life, most of whom failed dismally to treat my anxiety and depression, and some of whom (I now know) reacted completely inappropriately to my inability to express my emotions. To be able to talk openly about it with people who understood, rather than just brushing it aside as the talk of a madman, was the first of many "aha moments" that I've had while on WP.

It wasn't just finding a group of people talking openly about something that I had perceived but never understood before that was a big thing, though. That first "aha moment" will always be special because it opened my eyes to how pervasive my autism is; that it wasn't just isolated to those narrow aspects which the psychologists always seemed so interested in; that there is no part of my personality or life which hasn't been touched by it in some way, however small. In turn, this kick-started the necessary, though sometimes painful, process of accepting that some of my impairments are not curable, which up until that point, I had always been led to believe by the "experts".

It's when I understood that I don't have autism, I am autistic.

The fact that my first "aha moment" happened to be alexithymia rather than some other subject seems very apt to me now. Problems regulating my mood have often led to such apathy that attempting any other kind of change always seemed hopeless and out of reach, so understanding my alexithymia better has turned out to be a vital first step towards improving my life.

Alexithymia would also make my list, and I have WP posters on the topic to thank for a similar realisation. My shortlist may develop into a long list the more I think about this (perhaps).

I think it has to be this thread.

viewtopic.php?t=313210

I read one of the entries after my first Autscape. It tied in with one of the sessions I had attended.

It was the final push which gave me the resolve to seek an assessment, which I had the following November which confirmed the suspicions I had about my profile being Autistic.

I'm not sure, but I'll try;


Topics about comorbidities.
They made sense to me as to how I see the entire spectrum itself.

Not just the psychiatric stuff about anxiety and depression out of circumstance or sensitivity/insensitivity/differences.
Or somewhat biological like gut issues and sleeping disorders due to EF like negligence/or actual biological cause.
Also other ND cases that either do relate perceptively/sensorially, cognitively, and somewhat distinguish it from the superficial/behavioral similarities.

So, to me -- Alexithymia makes sense. Dyspraxia makes sense. Prosopagnosia makes sense. ADHD also makes sense. Anxiety makes sense too. 'Awkwardness' and 'eccentricity' makes sense. Giftedness and Mental Retardation makes sense. And so on...


And the female aspie who copes masks too much. It made me wonder...
It also confirms certain facets of myself -- that may had anything to do with immaturity, pride, or luck.


Biggest irony would be that most of those stuff barely applies to my case and my life as whole.

By extension, it goes as far as the topic of culture and differences, and the concept of acceptance and denial.

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On the night I arrived here, that was a huge learning curve for me too. I read for 5 hours, and that was a revelation. In those days I was just at the beginning of learning about AS.

Now, years later, I find myself increasingly and intensely uncomfortable with the "co-morbid" label for conditions which are often "accompanying" conditions for AS people. Co morbid is a medical term for one disease co-existing with another. My place on the spectrum is not a disease in terms of my view of things. So I have stopped using "co-morbid", as a personal choice, though remain interested in the clustering of various conditions, some of which are not really co-occurring IMO but arise from stress and as a consequence of being AS in a world dominated by NTs, who dehumanise and marginalise AS people as a group and as individuals very frequently (every day).

( In medicine, comorbidity describes the effect of all other diseases an individual patient might have other than the primary disease of interest. The term can indicate either a condition existing simultaneously but independently with another condition or a related medical condition).

Good point.